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"$2.9 billion of the budget gap was closed by reforming programs to make them better and more efficient than ever before.
Every single department of state government will be reduced:
Agriculture, down 24%;
Banking, down 12%;
Children and families, down 4%;
Community affairs, down 35%;
Corrections, down 7%;
Environmental protection, down 2%;
Education, down 8%;
Health and senior services, down 6%;
Human services, down 4%;
Labor, down 6%;
Law and public safety, down 7%;
Military affairs, down 2%;
The public advocate, down 25%.
State, transportation and treasury, down 11, 3, and 39%, respectively.
Every department of state government has been asked to tighten its belt. And we will demand local governments do the same. We cannot and should not make state government shrink only to let local government expand.

$3 billion in savings results from recognizing that our pension system must be reformed before we can or should fund a broken, out of control system. The pension system has been so generous that it has created a flood of liabilities. From 2002 to 2008, pension payments to retirees grew 56%, triple the inflation rate. Our benefits are too rich, most public employees contribute too little, and the taxpayers have had enough -- enough of out of control pensions to public sector unions while they are losing their own jobs, enough of losing their homes, and then being told by the union bosses that they must pick up the tab for rich pensions at the same time.